A Christmas Carol
by Elektra Elentari
Summary: Originally Gandalf had planned for the hobbits to leave on Christmas Day. But not only the hobbits think that that isn't a good idea! This is my first fanfiction so please be nice! Slightly AU because they celebrate Christmas
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the lord of the rings (unfortunately)**

"Hullo Gandalf! How nice you visited!" Frodo offered Gandalf a seat and a cup of tea. Of course Frodo knew why Gandalf had visited, it had to do with the Ring. "I came to tell you that I have thought of some plans. But I fear you won't like them!" said Gandalf.

"What plans?" asked Frodo.

"About when you're going to leave; you, Samwise and the rest of your friends.

If you follow my plans you will reach Rivendell on time and if you set out early enough we will have all the time we need to destroy the Ring. But I see it's a bit late for all these discussions. It's already ten thirty and we should be going to bed."

"_I_ was nearly in bed myself," said Frodo yawning "but then I heard the door!"

"Then go now and I'll tell you about everything tomorrow."

* * *

So next morning, after breakfast, Gandalf told Frodo his plan.

"You should start packing and inform the others to do the same. And be very quick. You leave in four days." said Gandalf.

"Four days." Frodo counted them "But that's Christmas Day! And in three days it's Christmas Eve! We can't leave _then_!"

"The Ring is dangerous, Frodo! This mission mustn't fail. Any sacrifice should be made!"

Frodo could not argue. For one thing Gandalf was right! The Ring _was_ dangerous and it _couldn't_ stay in the Shire for much longer! But he found it quite unfair to leave on a day as special as Christmas (all hobbits love Christmas). And if _he_ didn't like the plan he couldn't help thinking what Sam, Merry and Pippin would say. Especially Pippin! If Frodo knew Pippin, his friend would hate the idea of missing the Christmas feast. But he would still want to help him! So would Merry and especially Sam! Gandalf's plan had its disadvantages, but it would work and that meant that there would be more Christmases (with a bit of luck and if they even did come back to celebrate them, with a bit of luck...) But Frodo knew that Sam, Merry and Pippin wouldn't even bother to think of that when he would tell them the plan.

* * *

The night of Christmas Eve, Gandalf was troubled! He couldn't stop thinking of the four hobbits. Of course, he knew his plan was great and would work perfectly well (as _anyone_ would say about their plan). He sat in the study of Bag End while Frodo went to tell Sam, Merry and Pippin the plan. He looked at a picture on the desk. It was a picture of Bilbo. He suddenly remembered Bilbo, Thorin, all the other dwarves and the journey to the Lonely Mountain. He had been good friends with Thorin before he died and Gandalf was sad he had. He went to the kitchen to get some water and then returned to the study. To his surprise, he found someone else sitting in his spot. A dwarf with a black beard wearing a sky-blue hood with a long silver tassel.

"Good evening Gandalf," said the dwarf "I see you don't remember me."

"I must admit that indeed I don't"replied Gandalf surprised that the dwarf knew his name.

"Well then," said the dwarf "I'll have to remind you. Go back some years to the day you sent _me_ and the other twelve dwarves to _this_ very house. _I_ was the leader of all these dwarves."

"It can't be!"cried Gandalf "Thorin Oakenshield! I thought you had died in the Battle Of Five Armies!"

"I did die." said Thorin "And this is _not_ me. It is my ghost. I am here to talk to you about something very important."

"About what?" asked Gandalf.

"About _you_! You're spoiling Christmas for the hobbits. You know which."

"Frodo, Samwise, Peregrin and Meriadoc. I'm not spoiling their Christmas!"

"Oh, you _are_! That's why I'm here! To tell you not to. I didn't like Christmas either, but I didn't spoil it for anyone!"

"But I'm _not_ spoiling it!"

"Don't argue with me Gandalf the Grey! I will send you three ghosts tonight. You must listen to them, for they will help you understand what you're doing! If even _that_ won't make you understand, then dark things will happen in the future that must _not_ happen!"

"Go away! You're not real! You're only my imagination!" said Gandalf. He rubbed his eyes and then looked at where Thorin had been sitting. The chair was empty.

**Author's Note: Soo what do you think? Please review and let me know!**


	2. Chapter 2

Gandalf had a sip of water and sat down. _'It's not that I don't like Christmas!' _he thought _'It's just that I have no one to celebrate it with, that's all.'_ He sat back and closed his eyes.

He wasn't asleep yet when he felt someone shaking him. "Wake up Gandalf!"he heard a voice say. He opened his eyes and in front of him stood a hobbit, but a hobbit that looked very familiar to him. He grabbed the picture of Bilbo that was on the desk and held it in front of the hobbit's face hoping that when he would put it back on the desk there would be no one in that spot. "Oh please don't look at that picture!" said the hobbit taking it from him "I look terrible!"

"I wasn't asleep! I only _wish_ I was!" said Gandalf. But then he thought of what the hobbit had just said. "Bilbo? Is it _you_?"he asked.

"Of course it's me!"replied Bilbo.

"But... but, how did you get here? Aren't you in Rivendell?"

"Of course I am in Rivendell! Where else should I be?"

"But you're right here!"

"What? Where?" said Bilbo turning around as if to see someone that was standing behind him. Then he turned around again laughing. "Oh, I get you!" he said still laughing "I'm not real!"

"Then what _are_ you?" asked Gandalf.

"I'm the ghost of Christmas Past. Didn't Thorin-Ghost come and tell you that he will send three ghosts?" said Bilbo.

Gandalf looked puzzled. How did this ghost of Bilbo appear if the 'ghost' of Thorin he had seen _wasn't_ real (or he _thought_ wasn't real). "Then Thorin was real after all! Then I haven't gone mad!"exclaimed Gandalf.

"Well, it wasn't the real Thorin, it was his ghost." said Bilbo.

"Why are you here?" asked Gandalf.

"I'm here to take you back to the past and remind you how once you enjoyed Christmas and cared about others enjoying it as well."

"But I _always_ cared about others enjoying Christmas!"

"Well, you're not _this_ year!"

"Are you talking about Frodo and everybody else too?"

"Yes! Who else would I be talking about? Now, it's time for a trip to the past. Hold onto your hat!". And with that the ghost of Bilbo clapped his hands three times and suddenly a strong wind blew and Gandalf and the ghost were swept away by it.

* * *

When the wind died down Gandalf saw that he was in the living room in Bag End. But it looked different since he had last seen it that evening. A large Christmas tree was in the centre of the room and on the floor was a carpet. The tree was decorated with candles, ribbons and a big golden star on top. On the carpet sat two hobbits, a young one and an older one. They were wearing warm clothes and were sitting close to each other. Everything looked so peaceful that Gandalf didn't even dare to move.

"Welcome to the past. It's 28 years ago!"the ghost next to him said.

Suddenly there was a sound like a knock on a door. The older hobbit got up and ran to the corridor. As he was going there, he bumped into Gandalf.

"Hey, watch where you're going!"called Gandalf after him. The ghost laughed loudly. "Calm down! They can't see you, hear you or feel you! You're like me now!"

"I'm a Bilbo Baggins-hobbit?"cried Gandalf and looked down to his feet.

"No, you're a ghost!"laughed the ghost again. Gandalf didn't have any time to answer, because the old hobbit came rushing back into the room. Following him, Gandalf saw himself! All of a sudden he was very interested in what was going on and he paid a lot of attention to what everybody said.

* * *

"My dear Gandalf, I'm so glad you came!" said the old hobbit.

"I just couldn't turn down your invitation!" said Gandalf "Of course I would like to spend Christmas with you, Bilbo!"

"Oh, I had a feeling you would come the moment I send you the letter! But I started to have my doubts when you hadn't showed up all this time."

"I was terribly delayed by the weather! It's the coldest winter the Shire has

known for a long time."

"But it won't stop us from having a great Christmas!" said the young hobbit springing to his feet.

"My, my! Who would that be? Not little Frodo Baggins! You've grown a lot since I last saw you!"exclaimed Gandalf.

"Indeed he has!" said Bilbo "That's what I also thought this morning!"

"This is going to be the best Christmas _ever_!" said Frodo.

"Of course it will!" said Bilbo. Then all three of them sat down together and started telling Christmas stories and later, even other stories that had nothing to do with Christmas, including the story of the trolls and how they had turned to stone. But they seemed to be enjoying each other's company so much!

* * *

"Well, that was the past." said the ghost "What do you think of it?"

"I had completely forgotten about this Christmas! How could I have! It was the best Christmas I ever had!" said Gandalf.

"But see, once you enjoyed Christmas and you spent it with someone." said the ghost.

"I did indeed!" said Gandalf "But that was years ago, Bilbo is away now and Frodo has grown up."

"Is that much different?" asked the ghost. Gandalf thought about this. The ghost was right. The only thing that had changed was the age of the people he had spent Christmas with that year. "But he has a mission now!"his other thought replied to the ghost "If that mission fails, there will _be_ no more Christmases to spend with him."

"And will there be Christmases to spend with him if he dies on that mission?" asked the ghost. Gandalf shrugged his shoulders.

"So you _didn't_ change your mind!" said the ghost surprised. He clapped his hands three times again, but this time quite disappointed. The same wind blew again and they were whisked away by it.


	3. Chapter 3

Soon they were back in the study of Bag End, returned to the present. The ghost looked at Gandalf very disappointed. "So, it looks like I didn't change your mind! That was a shame! But the next ghost will help with that! Goodbye!"he said and clapped once.

"Wait, _what_ next ghost?"called Gandalf after him. But the ghost had already vanished from in front of him.

* * *

"I'm starting to think I've gone mad again! All these ghosts suddenly started appearing! But, what next ghost was Bilbo's ghost talking about?"he said to himself.

"Perhaps _I_ could help you answer that question!" said a voice behind him.

Gandalf nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned around, and there was another hobbit. And that hobbit was Pippin Took. "What are you doing here you Fool of a Took?" said Gandalf quite annoyed that Pippin scared him.

"I'm the ghost of Christmas Present, not a Fool of a Took!" said Pippin "And don't you call me like that again, because now I can do something very bad to you!". With that the ghost clicked his fingers and suddenly a pile of plates appeared in Gandalf's hands. "Now you have to wash them!" said the ghost. It was of course what Gandalf had done to Pippin and Merry on Bilbo's eleventy-first birthday party. It was terribly amusing to the ghost to make Gandalf wash dishes, but Gandalf was very annoyed by the ghost's behavior. "I won't wash plates!"he said and dropped the pile of plates in the ghost's hands. But the plates fell to the ground and broke into many pieces. The ghost laughed. "And something great about being a ghost is that I can't touch or hold real life things. They just pass through me!"he said. Gandalf looked at him angrily "I hope you're not here to take me on a journey like the last ghost?"he said.

"Well, bad luck to you! That's what I'm here to do!" said the ghost "I'm going to take you to see how you are making everybody sad in the present. I hope you don't mind the _'appearing in smoke'_ effect!"

"The what?" said Gandalf, but even before he had finished saying this, the ghost had clicked its fingers.

* * *

The next thing Gandalf knew was that in the speed of a blinking eyelid they were outside Merry's hobbit-hole. They had appeared there surrounded by smoke. Gandalf coughed and waved away the smoke. "Don't do that again!"he said sharply to the ghost.

"I'm sorry, smoke appearances are my thing!" said the ghost and took some steps forward. To Gandalf's surprise, he walked straight through the door. It was not until five seconds later when he remembered that they were ghosts. He walked in as well.

The ghost was waiting for him in the living room where a big tree, like the one Gandalf had seen with the ghost of Bilbo, was standing in the centre. In front of the tree, were three hobbits. Gandalf immediately recognized Frodo and the rest of the hobbits were Pippin and Merry. "Look at that one on Frodo's right, he's a charming young hobbit!" said the ghost of Pippin pointing at Pippin. Gandalf rolled his eyes at the ghost and focused on the hobbits and what they said. They were talking about his plan.

* * *

"Not celebrate Christmas?"cried Pippin "Old Gandalf must have stolen my 'most terrible year ever' notes! Number 2: No Christmas celebration. Number 1 is: No food and drink. This has gone too far!"

"It's not that I never agree with you Pip, but you're right _this_ time!" said Merry "Gandalf can think of _the plan_, but he has to think of _the hobbits _in the plan as well! We want help you Frodo, even for our small part in _your_ plan, but we also want our Christmas! But on the other hand, it isn't _your_ terrible idea, it's Gandalf's."

"Then I would like Gandalf to come here himself and apologize to me for ruining my Christmas plans!"

"I also had plans for Christmas." said Frodo who hadn't spoken all this time "I actually wanted to spend Christmas with you two. It's been something being without Bilbo for the last seventeen years! It's been lonely." Nobody said something for a while. Then Merry spoke again. "And we _want_ to spend Christmas with you Frodo. But, by the looks of it we won't be able to do that."

he said "What do you think Bilbo would have said?"

"He would have agreed with us! He loved Christmas! I would very much like to see him again! I can still remember my first Christmas in Bag End with him." said Frodo "And I'll never forget it!"

"What was so special about it?" asked Pippin.

"It was with Bilbo. That was enough to make it special!" said Frodo.

"I'm sure a Christmas with Bilbo would be worth to remember for an entire lifetime!" said Merry.

"I wish I could go back to that Christmas! But it's about 28 years ago. I was only twenty-two at the time." said Frodo.

"The same year you came to Hobbiton! Do you remember the day we met you?" said Merry.

"I can't forget it; and, I think, neither can Frodo!" said Pippin.

"Of course I can remember it!" said Frodo "You were my first friends in Hobbiton."

"And you were a great friend as well." said Merry "And Bilbo must have been a great uncle!"

"Bilbo was more than my uncle! He was like a second father!" said Frodo a tear rolling down his face. "I'm sorry! I'm just getting a bit emotional!"he said and wiped it away.

"It was a thought, wasn't it?" said Merry. Frodo nodded "Of my father and mother and then of Bilbo!"he said. All three of the hobbits were silent for a while and then first Pippin then Merry and then Frodo got closer to each other and hugged.

* * *

The ghost turned around and looked at Gandalf. To its amazement, he was also crying. "Gandalf, are you crying?"it asked him. Gandalf wiped away his own tears. "No,"he said "there's something in my eye."

"Oh, and I was starting to think you understood what you're doing to the hobbits." said the ghost.

"I _have_ actually, but just a bit." said Gandalf.

"And you see how sad you're making everybody?" asked the ghost.

"I didn't know how much Christmas meant to them!" said Gandalf "I had no idea they wanted to spend it all together! If I had known..."

"Would you have let them celebrate?" asked the ghost with a sudden tone of excitement and smile on his face.

"I would have thought of it seriously to go with them so they won't be all alone." said Gandalf. The ghost's smile vanished and he kicked the air with his foot. "Oh, come on now! We were _so_ close to making you regret your plan."he said and clicked his fingers again.

**Author's Note: Can you see the little button you press to go to the next chapter? Before you press _that_ button, press the other one marked "review" Enjoy the next chapter!**


	4. Chapter 4

In the speed of a blinking eyelid they were transported to the study in Bag End again, surrounded by smoke. Gandalf coughed again and looked at the ghost angrily. "I'm very, very disappointed in you Gandalf!" said the ghost "You just won't change your mind!"

"Why _should_ I?" said Gandalf.

"Because... because of what you just saw!" said the ghost "Oh, you're hopeless!"

"I'm not!"argued Gandalf.

"I'm not here to argue! Well, I have to go! Next ghost will be here soon!" said the ghost and clicked his fingers. He vanished in a cloud of smoke.

* * *

Gandalf coughed again. _'Another ghost?! These ghosts don't seem to be doing me any good, they just make me feel terrible!'_he thought. He went to the kitchen to get _another _glass of water and then returned. He closely looked at the chair where the first ghost had appeared (to check if another ghost was sitting there now) and then sat down again. He took a sip of water and then as he was lowering the glass, he saw a man in front of him. In his surprise, he dropped the glass and it fell to the ground and broke. _'You should have expected to see another ghost. You're just breaking everything tonight Gandalf the Grey' _he thought to himself. Then he paid more attention to the man that was in front of him. He was a tall man, with dark hair and grey eyes. He too reminded Gandalf of someone, but this time he knew who, his old friend Aragorn. "Hello!" said Gandalf.

"Hello."replied Aragorn "I suppose you wonder how I got here and _why_ I am here."

"I do. Actually I want to know how you know the way, I've never shown you this place before." said Gandalf.

"Well, I didn't _need_ to know the way to come." said Aragorn "I'm the ghost of Christmas Future." At this, Gandalf was nearly furious. "I've had enough with all you ghosts!"he said angrily "Go back to where you came from!"

"I cannot do that until I have taken you to the future." said Aragorn.

"Then just take me there so this will be over." said Gandalf "The future can't be that terrible!"

"You think that because you haven't seen it!" said Aragorn "But _I_ have! And you _won't_ like it!" With that Aragorn whistled and they vanished from the study.

* * *

Gandalf saw that they were in Rivendell now. They were surrounded by elves which seemed to be going through their everyday life. It looked quite peaceful to Gandalf. "Well, it doesn't look so bad!"he said. The ghost said nothing. Then, out of a room, walked a sad looking Bilbo and right behind him were Sam, Merry and Pippin (also sad). Bilbo went and sat in a corner. The other three hobbits sat down close to him. But to Gandalf something seemed to be missing. He counted the hobbits. They were four when they had to be five with Bilbo. "Where's Frodo?"he asked the ghost. But the ghost still said nothing. Then Sam said something.

"Mr. Bilbo, I know it's hard for you, but we're going through the same thing right now!"he said.

"I know Sam, I know!" said Bilbo. "I'd like to know whose 'fault' it is!"

"Well, that's easy!" said Pippin and then whispered something to Bilbo. After

he heard it Bilbo looked quite surprised. Then all four of them got up and left

the room. "Where are they going?" asked Gandalf.

"To lord Elrond's Christmas dinner." said the ghost.

"Is it Christmas? It all looks too glum for such a day!" said Gandalf surprised.

"It _is_ glum!"agreed the ghost.

"I wonder why!" said Gandalf. The ghost said nothing but whistled again.

* * *

Gandalf thought they were going to return to the present, but instead they appeared in another room of the house of Elrond. But it didn't look like Christmas at all! There were no decorations, songs, music nor anything happy. The whole place looked glum! There was _only_ a big table in the middle. Elves were coming and going. But in the crowd Gandalf saw the hobbits, two dwarves (in fact they were Glóin and Gimli), a strange Elf, clad in green and brown (to tell you the truth, it was Legolas), a tall man dark-haired, and grey-eyed (the famous Boromir), Aragorn and also next to him Arwen, daughter of Elrond (I have to let you know that they were in love), a beautiful elf. She had hair dark as the shadows of twilight and the light of stars was in her bright eyes, grey as cloudless night.

All of them looked quite glum instead of celebrating as they should be on such a day. They sat down. Just then, Gandalf walked in. He sat near the hobbits but when he did, they got up and went to the other side of the room giving him a stern look as they went. Then Gandalf went to sit next to someone else, but they did the same, and soon they were all in the corner trying to keep as far away from Gandalf as possible.

"It looks as if everybody hates me!" said ghost-Gandalf.

"It doesn't _look_ like it. They _do_!" said the ghost "I would hate you too after what you've done!"

"But, what _did _I do?" said Gandalf "I _did_ expect Peregrin and Meriadoc to hate me anyway! But not Bilbo! I'm sure he will forgive me though! And so will Frodo! Seriously now, where is Frodo?"

"Well, it's time for me to tell you the story!" said the ghost "Do you want to hear it?"

"I do!"answered Gandalf.

"Here it goes then." said the ghost and began the story.

"The hobbits _did_ sacrifice their Christmas and left on the 25th. You sent me to find them in Bree at the inn of the Prancing Pony. So I went to Bree and found them. I was introduced as Strider to them. They didn't trust me at the begging, but I think they did later. The Ringwraiths..."

"Ringwraiths?"interrupted Gandalf "So the Nine _have_ risen again!"

"They have." said the ghost "So the Ringwraiths attacked the inn to find the Ring. We had expected that, so we ruffled the clothes, put in a bolster down the middle of each bed and kept calling Frodo Mr. Underhill, for safety. We tricked the Wraiths and left Bree. We reached Weathertop at night quite safe, but the Enemy had got there first. There were only five of the Nazgûl. Frodo put on the Ring, and they saw him. They wounded him with a Morgul-knife. They only got his shoulder, but the powers of the wound were working. I couldn't heal it, so we hoped we would reach Rivendell in time so Elrond could heal him. We were going well and then Glorfindel found us. He helped a bit and then went with us. Before we had reached the Ford of Bruinen the Nazgûl attacked again. This time all nine of them. Frodo was riding Glorfindel's horse and crossed the Ford, but not quite in time.

The Ringwraiths stepped into the water to get him, but Elrond caused the waters of the Bruinen to flood and they were washed away. Unfortunately Frodo was dragged away by the flood as well. When we found him, the wound had overcome him. Even Elrond couldn't do anything.

Everybody now hates you because it was _your_ fault!"

"_My_ fault? Because I wanted them to leave on Christmas! But I didn't know this would happen!" said Gandalf.

"But it happened, and you can't change it!" said the ghost.

"If I change the plan?"

"I'm afraid it's too late. _This_ is your fate now, and Frodo's."

"No, it can't be! I changed my mind!". Suddenly Gandalf felt he was fainting.


	5. Chapter 5

**Note: I really want to thank everyone for reviewing! It means a lot to me!**

When he came to himself, he was lying on the floor in the study of Bag End. A hobbit was standing in front of him, looking at him. "Frodo! You're alive!"he exclaimed. Frodo looked at Gandalf with a weird look on his face. "Of course I'm alive!"he said. "It must have been a dream then." said Gandalf "I had the weirdest dream last night!"

"What dream?" asked Frodo.

"That some ghosts took me to the Past, Present and Future. And the Future was just terrible! You were killed and everyone hated me because it was my fault. I'm so happy to see you alive!" said Gandalf

"I'm happy to know I'm alive right now!" said Frodo. Gandalf got up and just then recalled the date, it was Christmas. "Merry Christmas Frodo!"he said happily. "Merry Christmas!"answered Frodo. But he didn't sound that happy. Gandalf took some steps forward but then felt something under his foot. He looked down and saw pieces of broken plates and broken glass. He had broken plates and a glass in his 'dream' as well. "I know," said Frodo "there's glass and broken plates on the ground. I wonder how they came here!". Gandalf thought for a while _'If the plates and glass are here, in reality, that means that...'_ "_I_ broke them!"he said aloud. Frodo looked at him curiously.

"How?"he asked.

"When the ghost of Christmas Present and of Christmas Future came." said Gandalf "And that was all real!"

"Well, I managed to convince Sam, Merry and Pippin to leave today." said Frodo sadly "We packed last night. They'll come soon so we can leave." he started going towards the door.

"No! Don't!"Gandalf stopped him "If what happened is real, if you leave today, you'll die!"

"But, if the mission fails..."

"Forget about the mission! It can wait! But you mustn't go!"

"But if we don't destroy the Ring..."

"Please, don't leave! I don't want you to die! It will make me very sad, and Bilbo as well!" Frodo stopped and stood still. He looked at Gandalf and Gandalf looked at _him_. Since the other night, more than ever, he had realized how much Bilbo meant to Frodo. He himself hadn't really had an experience like that before, but he could imagine what it would be like. Frodo turned around and looked at him. "I don't want anybody to be sad,"he said "but you told me yourself that the mission mustn't fail because the fate of the whole world depends on it. And you're right."

"I know I'm right, but the mission _can_ wait a little longer." said Gandalf

"_How_ much longer?" said Frodo "I've already waited over ten years!"

"Wait until you can find a date on which you can leave easily." said Gandalf "Forget about today! Today is Christmas, and you should spend it with your friends, just like you wanted to."

* * *

There was a long pause. Then Frodo ran to Gandalf and hugged him. Gandalf hugged him back but soon noticed he had tears in his eyes.

"What did I say?"he asked him. Frodo wiped them away and laughed.

"These are tears of joy!"he said. Just then there was a knock on the door and Frodo went to answer. Gandalf followed him. It was Merry and Pippin.

"Merry Christmas!"they sang and walked in. "We're all packed and ready to go," said Merry trying to sound cheerful "but first...". He and Pippin put down their packs and started dancing around singing "We wish you a merry Christmas! We wish you a merry Christmas! We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!". Frodo laughed and joined in the second time.

When they were finished Merry picked up his pack and went to say something but then looked at Frodo closely. "Have you been crying?"he asked him. "What happened?" asked Pippin. Frodo started laughing. "Ok, now he's confusing me!"Pippin said to Merry. But Frodo kept laughing and when he stopped he said "They were tears of joy. You don't know how happy I am at the moment! Gandalf said something about a dream and ghosts and that I might die and then he told me that we can celebrate!"

A huge smile appeared on Pippin's face. "You mean, we can stay here and celebrate and drink and eat and have fun?"he said. Frodo nodded. "Now let's go and find Sam!" Merry and Pippin bolted out of Bag End singing "We wish you a merry Christmas! We wish you a merry Christmas! We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year!" as they went.

Frodo stayed behind for a bit. "Gandalf,"he said "thank you so much. Would you like to spend Christmas with me, Pippin and Merry?" A huge smile appeared on Gandalf's face. "Me? Spend Christmas with you and your friends?". He had never felt so happy in his life.

* * *

While the three hobbits and Gandalf were eating their Christmas dinner, Gandalf told them about what had happened the night before. "_I_ was the ghost of Christmas Present?" said Pippin "I must have been the best of all three ghosts!"

"I have to say, you were the worst!" said Gandalf. The hobbits burst out laughing.

"So, who is this Aragorn you talked about," asked Frodo "The ghost of

Christmas Future?"

"An old friend of mine." said Gandalf "He lives all around the place. You might see him in Bree one night and the next night he will be in Rivendell."

"And," said Frodo "Bilbo was the ghost of Christmas Past."

"Yes," said Gandalf "he was. And his ghost took me to the best of all the three Christmases the ghosts took me too."

"Better than the Christmas _my_ ghost sent you to?" said Pippin

"Much better!" said Gandalf. Pippin sighed. "Do you think that that means Bilbo is alive?" asked Frodo

"Maybe." said Gandalf "But do not give up your hope for that Frodo!"

"I _never_ did!" said Frodo "All these years, I always said that I was sure he was alive. But, I was just thinking about it. If he _is_ alive, he must be 128 years old. That's quite old!"

"I'm sure he's alive." said Gandalf "And I'm sure he has been thinking of you all these years."

"I've been thinking about him too. But, then I had to focus on the ring and that drew my interest."

"Well, last night I saw him! I can assure you for that!" There was a pause for some seconds. Then, Merry spoke. "Ok,"he said "I get the whole ghosts thing, but there's no way it was true!"

"It was!" said Gandalf "I found the plates and glass on the floor!"

"Maybe it was just a coincidence." said Frodo "Maybe you were sleepwalking during the night and broke the plates and glass then."

"Maybe." said Gandalf "That's probably what really happened."

"Now," said Frodo "it's my turn to tell you a story. A real one this time. And a very Christmas story." He turned to Gandalf and smiled at him. Gandalf smiled back at him, he could guess which story Frodo was going to tell. "The story of my first Christmas here, in Bag End, with Bilbo and Gandalf." said Frodo. He started the story "It was a rather cold night, and the 25th of December, Shire year 1389..."

* * *

As the hobbits and Gandalf listened to Frodo's story, over them and invisible to them, sat four ghosts (Thorin, Bilbo, Pippin and Aragorn) smiling and admiring their job.

THE END


End file.
